The agricultural business enterprise between food and health

This narrative considers three keywords: metamorphosis, food and health. In biological sciences, the meaning of metamorphosis is a radical and irreversible change in the ‘form’ and ‘structure’ of a living being in the various stages of its development; it is strategic to consider the changes taking place in the agricultural sector not only as a simple adaptation to the mutating socio-economic and political conditions, but as a transformation borne by the ‘structure’ of agricultural systems in mature economies and by the nature of the agricultural enterprise itself. ‘Food’ is a word often used as a synonymous for nutrient, alimentation, nutrition, food rights, food culture, etc. and that we can consider as a ‘multidimensional object constituting human identity and the most effective tool to communicate it’. Finally, the third keyword, health indeed, can be led back to a fundamental human right for ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not the simple absence of the state of illness or infirmity’. This is a definition that enhances a ‘one-health’ vision in the socioeconomic reflection and, even more so, in the health professions. After dedicating a specific consideration to the drivers of the agri-food system’s transformations, the manuscript will focus on two relevant perspectives of economic analysis capable of embracing the dynamics of the supply system with greater force.